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BRAIN FUNCTION
CALMING AND RE-ACTIVATING THE PRE-FRONTAL CORTEX TO MANAGE STRESS

When we get triggered into strong feelings of anxiety, fear, anger, or pain (sometimes
connected with trauma) the amygdala (located at the base of the skull) floods the body and
brain with stress chemicals like cortisol and adrenalin in order to get that fight, flight, or freeze
response. This is the part of the brain that evolved to keep our caveman ancestors safe from
sabre tooth tigers, and although the brain is very brilliant, it unfortunately sometimes has
difficulty distinguishing between emotional and physical danger, and also between past and
present danger, so even if the danger it senses is emotional or in the past, the amygdala may
still try to protect us by flooding the brain and body with cortisol and adrenalin to get that fight or
flight response. When this happens, the part of the brain located in behind our forehead, which
is called the Prefrontal Cortex and which holds our memory and executive functioning, may
shut down in order to not get in the way of the amygdala doing its fight or flight thing, so what
we need to do at those times is both calm and re-activate the pre-frontal cortex so that it can
take over its normal functioning again.

Deep breathing (or tapping) can calm the Pre-Frontal Cortex, and saying an affirmation to
ourselves at the same time can reactivate it so that it can shut down the amygdala and take
over the brain functioning again so that the amygdala stops flooding our body and brain with
stress chemicals like cortisol and adrenalin to get that “fight or flight” response. When a sabre
tooth tiger was around the corner, our cavemen ancestors didn’t want to be stopping and
thinking and weighing pros and cons, they needed that fight, flight or freeze response, but that’s
usually not helpful to us in solving our relationship or work problems. For that, we need to be
able to put the pre-frontal cortex back in charge so that we can think clearly and remember what
we already know to be true. Fortunately, psychologists have discovered a scientific way do this,
by taking a deep breath in through the nose, blowing it out through the mouth, making the out
breath approximately twice as long as the in breath, making sure the in breath goes all the way
down, past the chest, to the stomach, and saying an affirmation to yourself while you are
breathing in and out. The reason it’s important that the air go all the way down to your stomach
is that there is a nerve called the Vegus nerve which runs from the stomach to the amygdala
and if our breath goes right down to the stomach (so that you can feel it inflating a little as if
blowing up a balloon), the oxygen calms the vegus nerve, which in turn calms the amygdala. It
can be helpful, at first, to place your left hand over your chest and your right hand over your
stomach in order to make sure you can feel your stomach inflating a little, to be sure the air is
going all the way down when you breathe in, and then deflating a little when you breathe out.
After a couple of times, you won’t need to do that anymore, you will be able to sense when the
air is going right down past the diaphragm to the abdomen.

There are two types of affirmations: generic and customized.

Two generic deep breathing affirmations are:

I’m breathing in kindness for myself, I’m breathing out kindness for others or
I’m breathing in peace and relaxation, I’m breathing out stress and worry.

You can also create your own customized affirmation by validating, on the in breath, that this
is a stressful time, and reminding yourself, on the out breath, of some truth that you would like to
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be able to remember and believe about yourself and/or your life which, most or some of the, you
are able to remember and believe, but you may forget when you get triggered into strong
emotions like sadness, fear, anger, pain, or post trauma stress because of the pre-frontal cortex
which holds our memory function and our executive function shutting down at those times.

Making the out breath about twice as long as the in breath allows you to breathe out more
carbon dioxide and other stress chemicals, prevents you from hyperventilating, and is more
relaxing. Counting 1-2 on the in breath and 3-4-5-6 on the out breath a couple of times helps
pace ourselves, and after doing this a couple of times while counting, you will find that you have
become able to pace yourself and no longer need to count. You can then begin saying your
chosen affirmation silently to yourself.

It can be helpful to take a small recipe type card and write on one side the part of the affirmation
that you will be saying on the in breath, and on the other side, the part of the affirmation you will
be saying on the out breath. If you sit with this little card for just a minute or two a day, reading
the words on the first side, then turning it over and reading the words on the other side, after a
week or so you will find that you no longer need to turn the card over because you will already
know what is on the other side. If you treat the card like a flash card, looking at one side and
testing yourself to see how quickly what is on the other side comes to your mind, then checking
to see if you are correct, you will eventually find that the whole affirmation will come
spontaneously to your mind as soon as you take the first deep breath in through your nose, and
at this point, you will know that you have succeeded in installing the affirmation into your
unconscious mind, so that the next time you need it, all you will have to do is breathe in, and the
affirmation will seem to bloom spontaneously in your mind, without any mental effort on your
part. At this point, it has the power to replace other, untrue thoughts which may be distressing to
you.